ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 717 



attached higher up, &c. Remarkable is the difference in locality, for 

 while H. dispar is Mediterranean, the new species came from the Dutch 

 Indies. 



Spermatogenesis in Cephalopods.* — Curt Thesing describes the 

 differentiation of the spermatid into the spermatozoon in Octopus, paying 

 particular attention to the history of the central corpuscles, two of which 

 are always present. In various Cephalopods — Rossia macrosoma, Sepia 

 officinalis, and Loligo vulgaris — the author has studied the occurrence of 

 nutritive cells. He did not find what Pictet called a cytophore, but 

 nutritive cells play an important role. Some spermatogonia, spermato- 

 cytes, and even spermatids and spermatozoa, seem to degenerate ; the 

 cell boundaries become indistinct and the nuclei are dissolved ; a syncy- 

 tium is formed. Into such syncytia the normal spermatozoa force their 

 heads, and apparently utilise the material. In follicles which contain 

 relatively few sperm-cells, the syncytia tend to be rounded off, producing 

 the appearance which Pictet described as a cytophore. 



y. Gastropoda. 



New Solenogastres.f — H. F. Nierstrasz describes Chcetoderma 

 challengeri sp. n., which, in its distichal radula and its quite incipient 

 mid-gut gland, &c, appears to be primitive, and in some respects a 

 transition-form between NeonienidaB and Cha^todermatidai. Except 

 that it was got on the " Challenger " expedition, the origin of the 

 specimen is unknown. Another form, Chcetoderma normanni n. sp., 

 given by Canon Norman to the Utrecht Zoological Laboratory, but 

 also of unknown locality, lies near Ch. loveni • and a third new species 

 Ch. canadense is nearly related to Ch. nitidulum. 



The author establishes a new genus, Uncimenia (U. neapolitand), for 

 a form from Naples which is in some ways near Paramenia. It is dis- 

 tinguished from other Neomenidse by the absence of radula and radula- 

 sac, by the presence of an organ of unknown function around the fore- 

 gut, of two ventral short salivary glands, by the terminal cloacal opening, 

 by a pair of seminal vesicles, and by the large respiratory cloacal folds. 



Storing-Kidney in Carinaria mediterranea.J — J. Fahringer found 

 that the kidneys of Heteropods did not seem to contain any uric acid. 

 In Carinaria his attention was drawn to two gland-like white strands, 

 which shine through at the root of the fin. These organs have been 

 described by Gegenbaur and others ; they have been called " concretion- 

 glands," &c, and they certainly contain uric acid. Their structure 

 shows a number of cell-complexes, with more or less round cells con- 

 taining uric concretions, little plasma, and large nuclei. The posterior 

 portion of the caudal artery passes through the middle. Tbat they have 

 excretory significance seems certain ; they are complementary to the 

 true kidney. 



Variation in the Genus AshmunellaJ— T. D. A. Cockerell supplies 

 statistical data for the plotting of curves of shell diameter of sub-specie? 



* Zool. ADzeig., xxvii. (1903) pp. 1-7 (7 figs.) 



t Zool. Jahrb. xviii. (1903) pp. 359-86 (2 pis.). 



j Zool. Anzeig. xxvii. (1903) pp. 7-12 (3 figs.). 



§ Proc Acad. Nat. Sc. of Philadelphia, Aug. 1903, pp. 015-6. 



Dec. 16th, 1903 3 A 



